The French Revolution
Before the French Revolution Before the French Revolution, the king and the upper classes threw parties every night with high living and fine dining. The lower classes (also known as the poor) worked very hard everyday while the upper classes did little to nothing, this cased civil unrest in the lower class, keep in mind that the population of the lower class is 80% and the rest were just 20%. In May 17, 1756, France went to war with Britain, which started the Seven Years War. France later lost the war and were now in debt, but the upper classes didn't care, they acted as if nothing was wrong. In 1774, King Louis XVI was crowned king of France, but he was a weak man and he couldn't run an entire nation, leaving the other parts of the government to make decisions. One of his first acts was to get revenge on Britain by funding the Americans in the American Revolution, but America never paid them back after they won, causing France to go into more debt, but the upper class still did nothing as the poor worked harder and harder. The lower classes started to dislike the king and queen as she started to spend all of France's money on herself, she even made her hair a boat! But then, King Louis XVI started to tax the poor people for silly reasons, making the country grow into more civil unrest, they also took some of the food from the poor. The weather started to become worse and worse, which didn't help the poor who were trying to make food, but most of them destroyed crops. The cost of bread went very high, the poor couldn't get the bread, but the higher classes acted as if they had an unlimited amount of bread. This started the French Revolution. The Start The poor had enough and they started to riot, women took to the streets, bakeries were raided and innocent bakers were suspected of taking bread for themselves were sometimes hanged. The king of France finally found out that the people were getting mad, the upper classes told he needed to do some action, but the king summoned the Estates General, which hadn't been summoned for 175 years, but he thought the time was right. The Three Estates The Three Estates was 3 groups, the First Class, the Second Class and the Third Class. The First and Second class were more favoured and they got their way a lot of the time. The Third Estate had a population of 27,000,000 people, which at the time was 98% of France's population, instead of getting more than one vote (a vote is taken whenever an action is needed in the Estates General.) But they only got one vote, like the First and Second class, but they were only 2% of the population, meaning that the Third Estate should've had more power, but the First and Second class did, the Third Estate were unhappy about this, but since they were 98% of the population, they could make their own government, which is what they did. The Third Estate found an indoor tennis court and on June 20, 1789, they made the Tennis Court Oath. Pledging to continue meeting until the king gave into their demands for more equality and economic reform. The king feared his position was under threat, so he called in the military to take position in the capital city of France, Paris. Now, the revolution was at it's worst, France was in massive civil unrest, some of the French military abandoned the military to go to the National Guards, who were on the Third Estate's side and the king started to lose control of France. Civil Unrest in France In the early hours of July 14, 1789, a large crowd raided the Hôtel des Invalides (in English, The National Residence of the Invalids) which was a military hospital, the crowd found guns, but didn't have gunpowder, but they knew where to get some. The Bastille, a prison fortress and the crowd headed to the Bastille. They demanded the man in charge, Governor de Launay would give the prison and hand over the gunpowder. Governor de Launay refused and meanwhile, in the palace, the king found out that the people had surrounded the Bastille, but before they could do anything, the crowd had finished off from the Bastille and they sliced Governor de Launay's head right off and took the gunpowder. The National Assembly had found out about the violence that had recently happened, they actually supported the violence and made the king lose even more power. In August, leaders of the National Assembly, along with Thomas Jefferson made the Declaration of Man and Citizen, which guaranteed liberty and equal rights to all men. Back in France, they were still starving, the people thought that the reason was that the king couldn't see the problem. On October 5th, a crowd of 7,000 women marched to the palace, along the way, the crowd grew to tens of thousands. When they arrived, they demanded that the king would come out and discuss with the crowd. The queen decided to help his husband and when she heard they were hungry, she suggested to give cake to the people, which angered some people as cake wouldn't solve the problem of this starvation. Some members of the crowd raided in the palace to kill the queen, but the queen ran out in a secret hideout in her bedroom at the last minute. The mob killed several Royal Guards and the king finally went out to discuss with the crowd. He now shared power with the revolutionary government and the king had no power now, the revolutionary government were growing in power while the king lost power. The revolutionary government told the king what to do, such as demanding to wear the revolutionary hat. The Royal Family attempts to leave The king decided it would be a good idea to leave France because of the civil unrest in France. Since the queen was an Austrian, they could move to Austria and on June 20, 1791, they disguised themselves as servants and attempted to move to Austria. The royal cart stopped at Varennes and the post master asked where they were going, the post master recognized him as the king and checked his passport. When the king was recognized as the king of France, he was sent back to Paris and many had heard what happened. They said he was a traitor and nobody respected the king now. Many people wanted the king to be removed. Down with the king! The people of France wanted the king to be removed after this incident. A man named Dr. Joseph Guillotine created an invention called the 'Guillotine'. This made the human lay onto the wooden parts of the guillotine, the hand would get trapped in the metal parts and a heavy blade fall onto the person's head and slice the head right off and the person is dead in a matter of seconds. Other countries close to France were unhappy about what was happening in France and tried as hard for any revolutionary ideas to not be spread into their countries. There was a vote on what should happen to the monarchy and the votes made the monarchy suspended and have no power. King Louis XVI was now just plain old Louis, the king had no power over France now, then he was sent to a prison cell where an eye could be kept on him. On September 22, 1792, the French Republic was declared, the kingdom of France was no more. Death of King Louis XVI Louis was put on trial for execution to the guillotine and by one vote, he was sent to the guillotine. Here were the results on the execution of Louis. The guns fired when Louis was dead, her wife heard these shots and she would die later on October 16, 1793. Work in progress!Category:Events Category:France Category:Poland Category:Europe Category:Revolutions